London entrepreneur launches vegan dog food brand ahead of “Veganuary”
A London-based entrepreneur hopes the launch of her new product will satisfy the ethical pet owner market in this veganuary.
Lucy McKinna, a trained veterinarian and vegan from New Malden, struggled with the fact that she didn’t eat meat, but rather fed it to her dog.
Lucy commented, “I was fully committed to a vegan lifestyle, but I couldn’t find anything on the market that I believed would give my dog everything she needs to stay healthy.”
Lucy set out to solve this ethical dilemma herself. She started creating her own vegan dog food, initially just for herself and the dogs of her veterinary customers.
Feedback from her customers was “so positive” that Lucy decided to turn her idea into a business and Noochy Poochy launched shortly afterwards. “Nooch” is a vegan term for nutritional yeast.
The brand has so far been launched in health, pet and vegan stores nationwide, including zero waste stores where Lucy supplies bulk products.
Lucy continued, “At first we couldn’t find a vegan source of an important vitamin in dog food, vitamin D3, which is usually made from sheep’s wool. After months of searching and our own tests to ensure that it was stable while the recipe was being cooked, we managed to get the vitamin D3 from algae and were finally able to receive the fully vegan seal of approval. “
“There has been a lot of skepticism about the vegan diet for dogs in the past, but now with recent supportive studies and the availability of a ‘complete’ diet, the vegetable dog market may well begin to mirror the human food market.
“A lot of people fear that a vegan dog food is missing things like protein, certain fats, and amino acids, but Noochy is 28 percent higher in protein than many meat-based foods, along with an impressive 6: 3 omega fatty acid ratio of 4 to 1 and supplemented by L-carnitine, DL-methionine and taurine. “
Would you like to advertise your product / service to SMEs in your region?
Find out how Bdaily can help →